Today, most automakers accomplish that with a distributed form of data processing. That is, they place intelligence at the sensors. More recently, though, that’s begun to change. Many engineers now favor a more centralized form of data processing, in which simple sensors send raw unprocessed data to a powerful central processor, which does all the “thinking.”

To learn more about distributed and centralized architectures, Design News talked with Davide Santo, an engineering veteran of Motorola and Freescale Semiconductor, and now the director of the Autonomous Driving Lab for NXP Semiconductors. Here, Santo offers his views on the topic.

Davide Santo of NXP: “It’s clear to me that there needs to be a centralized function for the planning phase – planning means path-finding, maneuvering and motion trajectory.” (Source: NXP Semiconductors)

DN: Let’s start with definitions. Could you define distributed and centralized autonomous vehicle architectures for us?

SANTO: It dates back to a definition proposed by the US Department of Defense Laboratories in 1999. Essentially, that definition was limited to sensor fusion. Distributed meant that every sensor node knew what every other node was doing. And centralized meant that there was only one central point that collected all the information and created the sensor fusion map.

DN: There’s also a solution that’s a hybrid of those two electrical architectures. How does that work?

SANTO: The hybrid concept is a middle solution. There’s a central unit that works at a higher abstraction level. And there are domains. The domains can work geographically, for example, in the front and back of the car. Or they can be based on cameras and sensors.

DN: What’s been the primary solution to date?

SANTO: Up to now, systems were distributed because there was not a real centralized solution in the market. But today, because of the computing capabilities of companies like Nvidia, it’s entirely possible to do a centralized architecture.

DN: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a distributed architecture?

SANTO: The advantage might be that you don’t have to bring in a huge amount of data. You don’t have the problem of carrying data in a secure and efficient way from the edge to the center. And you can effectively put things together in the most cost efficient way.

The negative aspect is that you have to distribute the information simultaneously and synchronize it across all the nodes. And this has become practically impossible when you exceed three or four nodes.

DN: What are the advantages and disadvantages of a centralized architecture?

SANTO: You get the best possible information. If you don’t touch the data, don’t modify it, don’t filter it at the edge, then you get the maximum possible information.

The disadvantage is that your center becomes a monster. It’s huge. You have to move data from as many as 12 cameras with four megapixels each, so you’re moving gigabytes. And you have to move radar data, so you’re moving gigabytes again. You end up having this huge amount of data that comes in at a high frequency rate, and it has to be processed. Your machine at the center is non-scalable, and when you don’t scale, you can’t offer capabilities for the long term, which will be needed in automotive.

DN: As we move closer to actual vehicle autonomy, is one or the other starting to emerge as a leader?

SANTO: It’s clear to me that there needs to be a centralized function for the planning phase – planning means path-finding, maneuvering and motion trajectory. It’s not the end-to-end (centralized architecture) that Nvidia wants to have. We’re still going to have to have intelligent sensors that can reduce the bandwidth and optimize the cost somewhere between the edge and the center.

DN: So you’re suggesting that the hybrid architecture is the future? Does NXP see this as the solution?

SANTO: In the future, we believe hybrid will be the path because there is always the need to process close to the sensor, whether it’s for cameras, or antennas for radar, or cloud point analysis. At the same time, there will always be a need for a centralized place where all the local maps will be brought together to complete the centralized model.

DN: What does that mean for the future of automotive sensors?

SANTO: The sensor will become a little less intelligent, but it will not be a stupid sensor. It will definitely keep on doing important operations.

It’s very naïve to think we can do everything centralized. There’s so much you can do to make the sensor better and more useful for Level 3, Level 4 and Level 5 [autonomous] vehicles.

DN: Wouldn’t it be in the automaker’s best interest to go with a distributed system? That way, a lot of the development work could be offloaded to the suppliers.

SANTO: That’s exactly right. The question is, does the OEM want that? How does the OEM control a completely distributed system? They don’t. It puts them totally in the hands of the Tier One, with no chance of controlling it themselves.

The problem is it’s very difficult to control a distributed system. In order to make it work, you need to agree on languages, formats, protocols, and networking. It’s super tough. If the OEM could force their suppliers to do all that, they’d have a good life. But I doubt they can force all of the Tier Ones to do the same type of modeling, the same type of mapping, the same type of algorithms. The Tier Ones need to compete, and to do that, they have to offer differences.

DN: As we approach Level 5, will a standard be necessary?

SANTO: I hope for it. It happened in avionics. But for the automotive market, it’s going to be tougher. A little bit of agreement is needed, but it’s probably not feasible today.

]]>AutomotiveElectronics & Testsite:Design News,nid:57286Thu, 17 Aug 2017 05:41:39 -0400Charles MurrayDesign Newsenhttps://www.designnews.com/automotive-0/what-s-best-computing-architecture-autonomous-car/87827789257286Underwriters Laboratories Releases Cybersecurity Standards for Industrial Controlhttps://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/underwriters-laboratories-releases-cybersecurity-standards-industrial-control/132202681657313
As more than most software applications available today are comprised of open-source components, organizations must be especially vigilant to implement rigorous software supply chain management systems and procedures to mitigate the potential risk from third-party applications. Thus, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has developed a set of cybersecurity standards – UL 2900-2-2 – specifically designed for industrial control systems (ICS).

The standards were developed to offer testable cybersecurity criteria for third-party software and to validate the security claims of software vendors. The goal is to help mitigate cybersecurity concerns for manufacturers, vendors, and their customers through the UL Cybersecurity Assurance Program (UL CAP) that utilizes the new UL 2900-2-2 standard for ICS. In addition, UL has ongoing research partnerships with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS ICS-CERT) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA ICS) to help mitigate industrial IoT cyber risks.

UL has a long history of developing cybersecurity standards, so the latest efforts are a matter of identifying new needs in in the ICS market. “We felt there was a need for UL to step into this space and address the risks of cybersecurity, since many of our clients are industry vendors,” Ken Modeste, global principal engineer for UL Cybersecurity, told Design News. “We’ve been involved in the space since the 1990s. In the last 10 years, it’s been growing into wireless security and IT security systems.”

The goal was to make the standards broad enough to address security in control systems across multiple industries. “One of the challenges is how to secure the supply chain – to provide a foundation of security across the board. We started looking at the fundamental problem. After polling agencies and experts, we recognized that software is the predominant cause of security,” said Modeste. “If we could address the security of software, it would be applicable to industrial systems. So, we started to do build a foundation based on software and see how we can affect the software during the security design of software.”

The Continual Update Process

Cybersecurity is always a moving target. UL built this into the standards, so they will be updated as changes in the security environment change. “We’re in a continuous feedback mode for continuous improvement. There is no silver bullet or magic way to solve the problem,” said Modeste. “In the past, people have tried for gradual solutions, but that didn’t satisfy industry. We started adding and building on the foundation in order to make it harder and harder for a bad actor to circumvent control systems.”

UL created standards that are designed to adapt to developments in the security environment, a function that is consistent with updates that software vendors provide. “The standards are continually updated. Vendors are producing products, but those products are not static. They make revisions and updates,” said Modeste. “The vendor adapts, so they roll out any new changes. We take that into consideration. We look at how to ensure your vendor is doing the due diligence.”

By adhering to the standards, users can be assured their vendors are providing ongoing updates to security. “In practice, what we’ve seen is that if the vendor adopts these standards, it becomes part of their independent best practices and shows they’re doing the right thing,” said Modeste. “The adoption of these standards demonstrates to their clients that they’re adapting and they have third-part validation of that adapting.”

Ongoing UL Cybersecurity Standards

UL began publishing standards for the ICS providers last year. “We published a series of standards in 2016. We published more this past summer. We started three years ago as we worked is an advisory the Obama Administration,” said Modeste. “We met with several agencies with the government, DHS being the biggest one. We partnered with various agencies, including DARPA. We also include several consultants and utilities.”

The standards come out of UL’s Cybersecurity Assurance Program) UL CAP, which offers third party support to allow users to evaluate both the security of network-connectable products and systems, as well as the vendor processes for developing and maintaining products and systems for security.

While the standards apply to a wide swath of industries, including medical and buildings, the core work was done for manufacturing. “The standards are focused on the manufacturing community, to help them build good design into their products,” said Modeste. “That means the vendor takes into consideration the flaws and weaknesses that a hacker may use to attack. The standards don’t specifically say they should identify and notify the user. Instead, it makes the product robust enough to product itself. The software in the products will be trained to detect and take action.”

Rob Spiegel has covered automation and control for 17 years, 15 of them for Design News. Other topics he has covered include supply chain technology, alternative energy, and cyber security. For 10 years, he was owner and publisher of the food magazine Chile Pepper.

Image courtesy of Underwriters Laboratories.

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]]>Automation & Motion ControlCyber Securitysite:Design News,nid:57313Thu, 17 Aug 2017 03:18:06 -0400Rob SpiegelDesign Newsenhttps://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/underwriters-laboratories-releases-cybersecurity-standards-industrial-control/132202681657313How Trump&#039;s Manufacturing Jobs Council Fell Aparthttps://www.designnews.com/governmentdefense/how-trumps-manufacturing-jobs-council-fell-apart/106141356557317
President Donald Trump has decided to disband the council of his Manufacturing Jobs Initiative. The announcement came Wednesday morning, amidst a large exodus of the council's membership in response to the President's comments regarding a recent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, VA. By Tweet, the president said:

Rather than putting pressure on the businesspeople of the Manufacturing Council & Strategy & Policy Forum, I am ending both. Thank you all!

As of Wednesday, several members of President Trump's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative had departed including: Kenneth Frazier, CEO of pharmaceutical company Merck; Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank; Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing; Richard Trumka, of the AFL-CIO, along with Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's deputy chief of staff; 3M CEO Inge Thulin; and Intel CEO Brian Krzanich.

“ I resigned to call attention to the serious harm our divided political climate is causing to critical issues, including the serious need to address the decline of American manufacturing. Politics and political agendas have sidelined the important mission of rebuilding America’s manufacturing base. ... I am not a politician. I am an engineer who has spent most of his career working in factories that manufacture the world’s most advanced devices. Yet, it is clear even to me that nearly every issue is now politicized to the point where significant progress is impossible. Promoting American manufacturing should not be a political issue.”

Under Armour's Plank, echoed Krzanich's sentiment, expressing a desire to focus on technological innovation over political entanglements. In a statement released by Under Amour, Plank said, “We remain resolute in our potential and ability to improve American manufacturing. However, Under Armour engages in innovation and sports, not politics ...” In the past year Under Armour has gained attention for applying 3D printing techniques to shoe design and manufacturing.

Paul, of the Alliance of American Manufacturing, tweeted about his departure, saying, “... it's the right thing to do.”

I'm resigning from the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative because it's the right thing for me to do.

President Trump's Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, first announced back in January, was supposed to be a think tank, bringing together the most prominent business leaders in American manufacturing to tackle the problem of creating job growth in the manufacturing sector. At its inception the council boasted CEOs from companies including Tesla, Ford, Dow Chemical, Dell, Lockheed-Martin, and General Electric among its 28 members. However over the course of the year the council had been steadily dwindling, with the largest exodus coming this week.

The first major blow to the council's membership came in June when Tesla CEO Elon Musk resigned from the council in response to President Trump pulling out of the Paris climate accord. Musk, a known environmentalist, tweeted:

Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.

During the weekend of August 12 several white supremacist groups, including the KKK, and those that identify with the conservative Alt-Right movement, descended on the city of Charlottesville, N.C., to protest the planned removal of a statue commemorating Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The gathering, called the largest white supremacist gathering in at least a decade by several media outlets, attracted large groups of counter-protestors, as well.

Tensions between the two groups culminated on August 12, when 20-year-old Ohio resident James Alex Fields Jr. drove his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counter-protestors, seriously injuring 19 people and killing one, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, a resident of Charlottesville.

The President Responds

There was an outcry for the President to speak out about the violence in Charlottesville, and to condemn the white nationalist groups behind the protests. But many felt the President's response, which said the violence was on “many sides,” was, at best, an inadequate response and, at worst, an implicit condoning of white supremacy.

“Yes, I think there’s blame on both sides. If you look at both sides — I think there’s blame on both sides. And I have no doubt about it, and you don’t have any doubt about it either,” the President told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday.

At that same conference, when asked why he believed CEOs were leaving the manufacturing council, the President accused members of the council of being at odds with his plans to reshore more jobs back to the US:

“Because [these CEOs] are not taking their job seriously as it pertains to this country. We want jobs, manufacturing in this country. If you look at some of those people that you're talking about, they're outside of the country. ... We want products made in the country. Now, I have to tell you, some of the folks that will leave, they are leaving out of embarrassment because they make their products outside and I've been lecturing them ... about you have to bring it back to this country. You can't do it necessarily in Ireland and all of these other places. You have to bring this work back to this country. That's what I want. I want manufacturing to be back into the United States so that American workers can benefit.”

#QuitTheCouncil

Before he announced its disbandment, the President's remarks were looking to have a long-standing effect on his Manufacturing Jobs Initiative, as companies were likely looking to distance themselves from President Trump and his remarks, which many feel are racist. In a reaction to the first wave of CEOs leaving the council, activists took to social media, starting the hashtag #QuitTheCouncil to urge more business leaders to exit.

While he did not cite #QuitTheCouncil as part of his decision to leave the manufacturing council , 3M CEO Inge Thulin, was among those targeted (and later praised) by the hashtag:

Thulin announced his departure Wednesday morning, saying in a statement released to news outlets:

“Sustainability, diversity, and inclusion are my personal values and also fundamental to the 3M Vision. ... I joined the Manufacturing Jobs Initiative in January to advocate for policies that align with our values and encourage even stronger investment and job growth – in order to make the United States stronger, healthier, and more prosperous for all people. After careful consideration, I believe the initiative is no longer an effective vehicle for 3M to advance these goals. ...”

Symbolic or Impactful?

It is unclear whether the dissolution of the manufacturing council will have an impact on Trump's efforts to grow jobs in the US manufacturing sector. Some analysts have called the council little more than a symbolic gesture that was unlikely to have had any long-term impact on American manufacturing to begin with. Other analysts have credit Trump as a driving factor behind a spike in reshoring in 2017. However other factors including labor costs and lack of skilled workers overseas are also playing a significant role as more advanced technologies in industries such as automative and electronics hit the market.

]]>Government/Defense3D PrintingMaterials & AssemblyAutomation & Motion ControlGovernment/DefenseElectronics & TestBusinesssite:Design News,nid:57317Wed, 16 Aug 2017 15:08:41 -0400Chris WiltzDesign Newsenhttps://www.designnews.com/governmentdefense/how-trumps-manufacturing-jobs-council-fell-apart/106141356557317Helping SMEs Harness the IoT Via PLMhttps://www.designnews.com/automation/helping-smes-harness-iot-plm/62116612057314
The Internet of things (IoT) is becoming the way of the world and because of it, there are now more components being manufactured and more intricate design chain challenges than ever. Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will have to learn to trust data and analytics, where once they relied on people. To truly embrace this digital transformation, manufacturers need to step out of their comfort zones to learn new habits, acquire new disciplines, and implement organizational transformation that extends to their supply chain.

For small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this may be a bit of a challenge. Turning to their product lifecycle management (PLM) system to manage backend activities typically stored in customer relationship management (CRM), issue tracking, and data collection systems -- as well as all the supply chain activities associated with procurement -- can help SMEs take advantage of the IoT like larger companies.

PLM’s Role in Leveraging Big Data

PLM technology provides a system to centralize product data, standardize business processes and streamline communication of information across distributed product development teams. It helps to shorten development cycles, improve quality and cut the time-to-market by enabling access to current and accurate product data. Anytime. Anywhere.

To aid in the development of more complex, smart device-enabled products, PLM software has evolved from the backbone for managing multiple discipline processes, product documentation, complex BOMs, and engineering changes, to capturing downstream activities such as manufacturing planning, quality processes, and product and customer/field-level feedback.

PLM is capable of integrating data on both the front end and back end to support a bigger picture and better-designed products. The amount of data interaction that engineers are going to need is increasing, especially since the domains of the design and engineering environments are no longer silos unto themselves. Data points related to product performance and efficiency can now be shared with the rest of the organization. Products are getting more complex by adding electronic and software components, and increased digital customer interactions bring forth even more information and opportunity.

Some of the PLM vendors that cater to SMEs have taken the steps to build simple-to-use tools to leverage data and communications in new and more meaningful ways. Let’s face it, communication continues to be the cornerstone of product development, manufacturing, and support. Meetings, emails, and phone/conference calls are important aspects of any team that builds products. It is all about transparency and finding the best ways to get everyone on the same page. Capturing these discussions and associating them to product records provides all personnel with the visibility to understand the full impact their products have had on user, consumers, and customers. Understanding this impact has a direct influence on product features and quality for future designs and updates/upgrades.

Embracing Customer Input

Customer feedback is commonly used throughout the product development process to ensure that the end product is something that solves a customer’s problem or fulfils a need. The companies that can intertwine product development and customer feedback will be the ones that reap strong competitive advantages, have sticky customer loyalty, and earn raving customer advocates. The best business decisions are based on data, not hunches. And this is especially true as the IoT adds an extra layer of complexity with a higher volume of customer feedback from both the consumer and products. Too many times, business owners’ and executives’ decisions are made based on inaccurate data.

Customer feedback is the holy grail of tangible data. It allows the product engineering team a better ability to gather real insight into how their customers really feel about the product or service. Bill Gates put it best when he related that a company’s most unhappy customers are actually the company’s greatest source of learning.

The Role of Communication Tracking Within PLM Systems

If a large percentage of customers suggest a product feature or want an additional customer service channel, it has now become possible to capture this information using PLM. PLM provides a communication platform to capture issues, feedback, and discussions from internal resources, customers, suppliers, and devices. Tracked items can automatically associate customer feedback to product records and translate to quality items and/or engineering changes/ECOs. This improves product development, quality, and timelines. Such systems can even provide product data links to internal and external feedback that makes the process easy and highly intuitive.

PLM systems have gotten smarter and many offer an efficient pre-filtering process before an issue becomes a quality item (such as a corrective action, nonconformity, process, change, etc.) or introduces product changes (ECOs). There is now a way to conduct closed-loop processing of PLM-related issues as well as non-PLM related ones.

It can also deliver a user with a blogging environment to encourage additional communication. Often it can help manage and route help tickets as well as track help ticket closure. Most importantly, it builds solutions and develops a more in-depth knowledge base to address common questions and problems for the purposes of improving product design and corporate policies.

Better Products Come from the Communication Loop

SMEs are coordinating 75% or more of their supply chain activity outside their four walls, using data derived from tapping into such areas as IoT, mobility and cloud-based technologies to achieve a more collaborative PLM framework, according to Frost & Sullivan. The results can deliver positive impacts in the design and engineering of products. This information SMEs are now tapping into is providing greater data accuracy, clarity, and insights, leading to better decision-making.

Extending PLM capabilities to include downstream processes, data sharing and analytics improve insights into customer requirements and make use of product performance data in real life. With PLCs, sensors, and smart devices improving and becoming more affordable and efficient, there are now more opportunities to track and research how devices are performing and how customers are experiencing products in all industries. Meaningful data gathered from customers, devices, suppliers and multiple departments internal to an organization, can seamlessly be filtered and leveraged throughout PLM processes to create better-engineered products.

Chuck Cimalore is president and CTO of Omnify Software, a company that designs, delivers and supports product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions for the Electronics OEM and Electronics Manufacturing Services industries. He is a graduate of Worchester Polytechnic Institute.

Image courtesy of Omnify Software.

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The automation giant said that in September it will unveil an application called Manage MyMachines for its MindSphere operating system, along with a separate software solution called Sinumerik Edge for analyzing data from machining processes. The products will serve as two more elements in Siemens’ effort to create an end-to-end software portfolio for companies seeking to “digitalize” their operations. By doing so, Siemens hopes to further close the loop between design and manufacturing, enabling manufacturers to more readily identify whether products are manufacturable before they reach the factory floor.

“Up to now, not everyone has had the ability to close that loop,” Sal Spada, research director for discrete automation at ARC Advisory Group, told Design News. “That’s a big part of their initiative – closing the loop from design down to the manufacturing processes. It’s the digitalization thread.”

In September, Siemens AG will unveil an application called Manage MyMachines for its MindSphere IoT operating system. (Source: Siemens AG)

The Manage MyMachines product is the first application for Siemens’ MindSphere, an open IoT operating system that allows machine data to be sent to the cloud. Manage MyMachines would give operators an overview of the machine data, enabling them to optimize their production. Similarly, Sinumerik Edge would allow operators to process machine data, but to do so at the machine, without sending it to the cloud. Siemens announced the two new products at a press event in Chicago last week.

The two products are the latest entries in Siemens’ ongoing effort to create a “digitalization” platform that encompasses product design, product planning, production engineering, production execution and services. That effort began a decade ago, when Siemens acquired UGS Corp., a provider of product lifecycle management software and services. It then acquired LMS International NV, a supplier of test and mechatronic simulation software, in 2012, followed by CD-adapco, a maker of simulation software, in 2016, and EDA software maker, Mentor Graphics, in 2017. In all, Siemens has invested $10 billion in acquisitions since 2007 and $5 billion in R&D expenditures during that time.

Siemens digitalization effort has value for design engineers in that it enables them to create a “digital twin” of their product, production process, and manufacturing equipment. “That’s huge,” said Spada of ARC Advisiory Group. “If you can’t manufacture something cost effectively, then you can go back to the design before you get to physical manufacturing and redesign it.” The company’s digitalization technology will be especially well suited to automotive and avionics manufacturing – two areas where Siemens is already strong, Spada said.

To be sure, Siemens isn’t the first to offer many of the products in its digital process chain. It is, however, believed to be the first to provide an end-to-end solution on a common platform. “Up to now, manufacturers have used many different tools,” Raj Batra, president of Siemens Digital Factory Division, told Design News last week. “It’s been more bolted-on, rather than integrated and holistic.” Using Siemens end-to-end solution addresses that problem, he said.

Batra added that it’s often said that 80% of a part’s manufacturing costs are pre-determined during design. “That’s why you need to look at this holistically,” he said. “You should be looking at design as it ties to manufacturing.”

Siemens will roll out its new products and demonstrate the digitalization technology at EMO 2017 in Hanover, Germany, in September. The company plans to link 200 CNC machines at the tradeshow up to its cloud-based MindSphere operating system to show off its capabilities.

Siemens believes the demo is key to helping design and manufacturing engineers comprehend the benefits of an end-to-end simulation environment. “What’s important here is to show the art of what’s possible in terms of digitalization,” Batra said.

]]>Automation & Motion ControlElectronics & Testsite:Design News,nid:57300Tue, 15 Aug 2017 04:02:05 -0400Charles MurrayDesign Newsenhttps://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/siemens-preaches-gospel-manufacturing-digitalization/111886482557300GE Digital Creates Program to Ensure Return on Smart Manufacturinghttps://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/ge-digital-creates-program-ensure-return-on-smart-manufacturing/111678118057299
We’ve all heard the stories of manufacturers who purchase advanced technology only to have it sit in the factory-floor corner undeployed because nobody has the time or wherewithal to implement the tools and make sure they work. GE Digital recognized this issue and created a service – Acceleration Plans – to make sure manufacturers get the results they paid for.

GE developed the program to ensure the effectiveness of the deployment of advanced manufacturing tools. The idea was to make sure customers get the value from their digital investment as soon as possible while also making sure they achieve outcomes that are critical to their business. “We are seeing difficulty in adoption,” Katie Bianchi, chief revenue officer for global support at GE Digital, told Design News.

“When we look at IIoT, it’s a big opportunity for manufacturers to capture value in the trillions of dollars, but in order to capture that value, those manufacturers have to spend half a trillion dollars collectively. And with only 15% of software projects deemed very successful, manufacturers are facing significant challenges in deployment.”

Ensuring Manufacturers Benefit from Smart Tools

GE recognized that not all customers are as prepared as they need to make the process changes necessary to gain the full benefit of advanced technology. “As we spent time with customers and partners in this space, we learned a lot about the notion of outcomes readiness. If a customer is trying to drive a 20% reduction in maintenance, or more they want increased productivity, we have to look at how to deploy to in order to make that effective.”

While that developers at GE were confident in the effectiveness of their manufacturing technology, those in the field saw the need for support on the follow-up to make sure the customers are able to make full use of the technology’s benefits. “What we realized we didn’t have was the back end – outcomes realization,” said Bianchi. “Do we pack our bags and walk away once the software is installed, or do we work with customer through the deployment to ensure the outcomes are met? We decided to develop a program to ensure that customers know what a particular button dues and how it does it.”

Tiers to Match Scale and Complexity

The Acceleration Plans program offers three tiers of engagement depending on the customer’s needs. The tiers were developed to provide tools and guidance for software installation and adoption based on a company’s scale and complexity with the goal of maximizing return on investment. “We structure the tiers to support the customer no matter who they are and where they are on this journey. We have an enterprise tier for largescale customers whose production can never be down,” said Bianchi. “And we have two other tiers – the premier tier and the standard tier. The premier tier is for those running critical applications with critical assets, but maybe not as large as enterprise customers. The standard tier services are built into the cost of the software subscription.”

Change Management Support

Software deployment at the plant can get stymied when personnel are not supported in changing long-held processes. “Change management is included in two of the tiers. It’s part of the blueprint in the planning stage,” said Bianchi. “We assess the organizational willingness and capability for change. With Acceleration Plans, we create a change management plan early on, and that plan continues through the deployment to help customers drive adoption. It’s a form of continuous improvement.”

Bianchi noted that the deployment is never fully complete, since there are always opportunities to get more from the software. “We meet with these customers once a quarter to review and make sure the action plan continues to get executed,” said Bianchi. “You can’t underestimate what a shift this is for manufacturers. The most important thing for us is to get results to get the renewal.”

ESC Minneapolis is Back! The Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) is back in Minnesota and it’s bigger than ever. Over two days, Nov. 8-9, 2017, receive in-depth education geared to drive a year’s worth of work. Uncover software design innovation, hardware breakthroughs, fresh IoT trends, product demos, and more that will change how you spend time and money on your next project. Click here to register today!

Rob Spiegel has covered automation and control for 17 years, 15 of them for Design News. Other topics he has covered include supply chain technology, alternative energy, and cyber security. For 10 years, he was owner and publisher of the food magazine Chile Pepper.

Images courtesy of GE Digital

]]>Automation & Motion ControlAutomationsite:Design News,nid:57299Mon, 14 Aug 2017 04:09:49 -0400Rob SpiegelDesign Newsenhttps://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/ge-digital-creates-program-ensure-return-on-smart-manufacturing/111678118057299Levi Strauss Experiments with 3D-Printed Denimhttps://www.designnews.com/materials-assembly/levi-strauss-experiments-3d-printed-denim/127098683857307
If researchers are successfully beginning to 3D print human skin, it seems quite natural that the clothes that cover it will also be fabricated this way in the very near future. To that end, clothing brand and global manufacturer Levi Strauss & Co. has become one of the first off-the-shelf clothing companies to explore the use of 3D printing to fabricate its products, though its explorations are in the very early stages.

The company unveiled in a blog post recently that it’s been experimenting with 3D printing to creating digital renderings of its classic denim Levi’s brand “Trucker” jacket that essentially create a shell of what the actual jacket will look like.

Over 50 years ago, the classic Levi’s “Trucker” jacket was introduced by Levi Strauss & Co. The company recently revealed it is experimenting with 3D printing to design this and potentially other denim products in the future. (Source: Levi Strauss & Co.)

Levi’s Head of Global Product Innovation Paul Dillinger joined with publication Fast Company at the Autodesk Pier 9 Workshop in San Francisco to create the renderings and demonstrate Levi’s experimentation with 3D digital manufacturing. The project captured everything about the jacket in a topography scan using 3D-printing software to show how the company can design products in new ways.

Dillinger is leading the project to advanced the brand’s early experimentation to “capture the real essence of a pair of Levi’s and convert it into digital collateral,” he said, according to the post. The company aims to use 3D printing to cut back on both material and manufacturing costs.

Levi Strauss declined to comment further to Design News about its current or future plans to incorporate 3D printing into its manufacturing process.

Levi Strauss isn’t the first clothing designer to use 3D printing to fabricate clothing, but so far most have been specialized designs from independent designers, or one-off clothing lines printed especially for fashion shows.

3D-printed clothing hit the Paris runway back in 2013 with Stratysy and Materialise printing clothing featured in Iris van Herpen's haute couture show "Voltage." Two years ago Israeli fashion student Danit Peleg also won notoriety for designing an entire line of 3D-printed clothing from her living room for a college project and then giving a TED talk on her work, which went viral.

Even more recently, fashion design trio threeASFOUR debuted a collection of 3D-printed clothes at New York City’s fashion week this past spring. Later, a published report in Wired revealed that the clothing was extremely fragile and noted in the article—aptly headlined “The Shattering Truth About 3D-Printed Clothing”--that it will likely be a long time before 3D-printed clothes are truly ready for mass production and distribution.

Indeed, so far no major designers have turned out 3D-printed clothing lines of any significance. And even with plans like those from Levi Strauss, it’s not likely this will happen in the near future, the denim company acquiesced.

“It’s important to emphasize that 3D printing won’t create an entirely functional bjacket--all of the fine details seen on the ‘printed’ denim are actually only impressions,” according to the blog post. “But, this semi-duplicate product still proves meaningful for Levi’s.”

Indeed, Dillinger told Fast Company that the experimentation doesn’t mean the company will soon be selling 3D-printed jackets, but only that it shows Levi’s brand designers are beginning to think more contemporary and cost-efficient ways to design the company’s clothing.

“It challenges us, and our design team, to think about design differently, and to think about design strategies to accommodate an uncertain future,” Dillinger said in the Fast Company article.

Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer who has written about technology and culture for more than 15 years. She has lived and worked as a professional journalist in Phoenix, San Francisco and New York City. She currently resides in a village on the southwest coast of Portugal.

]]>Materials & Assembly3D Printingsite:Design News,nid:57307Mon, 14 Aug 2017 03:51:03 -0400Elizabeth MontalbanoDesign Newsenhttps://www.designnews.com/materials-assembly/levi-strauss-experiments-3d-printed-denim/127098683857307Video Game VR Gun Targets Military Traininghttps://www.designnews.com/governmentdefense/video-game-vr-gun-targets-military-training/133767670957285
It would be easy to look at Striker VR's Arena Infinity blaster as just a high-end video gaming peripheral ... because that's exactly what it is. But under the hood of what the Louisiana-based company is calling the most realistic gun for virtual reality, is a plan to supply military and law enforcement with the most realistic guns ever for training and simulation.

Striker VR's Arena Infinity Blaster is a programmable gun peripheral for VR gaming that can produce the same recoil as a variety of firearms. (Image source: Striker VR)

Coupled with a VR headset and external positional trackers, the Arena Infinity does everything you would expect from a gaming peripheral. It's wireless, has about a three-hour battery life, it has all the weight and feel of a real gun, a realistically placed reload button, recoil, and programmable features to mimic various weapons (the hands-on demo we tried at SIGGRAPH 2017 featured a machine gun, rifle, grenade launcher, and chainsaw). But what sets the Arena Infinity apart is its unparalleled degree of realism – one that Striker VR through its sister company, HapTech, is hoping will make it the new standard in firearms training.

Speaking to Design News at SIGGRAPH 2017, Martin Holly, VP and Co-founder of Striker VR and HapTech, said while the gun is at the forefront, the companies are really built around a single proprietary product – a scalable, electromagnetic linear motor capable of delivering a degree of recoil and haptic feedback that exactly matches, or comes very close to, that of a real gun.

“We want as close to real recoil as we can get, “ Martin said. “In some cases we can generate the actual real recoil. The form factor of a .50 cal machine gun is extremely large so we can actually generate the realistic recoil. The form factor of, say an M4-sized platform, is a lot smaller so in that one we're reaching around 85-90 percent of realistic recoil, which is more than what pneumatic systems can offer.”

Pneumatic systems, guns that use compressed air to fire pellets or other ammunition, are the preferred firearms for training today. CO2 guns are particularly popular because they allow for repeated shots to mimic things like semi-automatic pistols. They're also comparatively inexpensive and safe as opposed traditional guns and they do not require specialized facilities.

But Holly said he and his team saw some major drawbacks to pneumatics, ones that his company could solve. “In the beginning we wanted to make [this technology] for gaming, but there were a lot of military applications,” he said.

“We found that there was a need to replace pneumatic systems because there are a lot of shortcomings – they're expensive in terms of operating costs and in that they require compressed air. And at a lot of places where training simulation occurs around the world there are brown outs because of power requirements. In order to operate some of these large-scale marksmanship systems you have to have constant power. And it's extremely costly to generate all of that compressed air.”

Striker VR's motor technology is scalable and can go into every weapon type, meaning it can be used to create training weapons of all calibers that will deliver more recoil than pnuematic systems. And since the guns themselves operate in virtual reality it adds another layer of safety. Video games such as the popular Call of Duty franchise are already praised for their level of realism and have already found uses for real-world military training. Coupling this with a device that gives soldiers the feeling of holding a real gun opens up an even more dynamic range of training scenarios.

HapTech's proprietary electromagnetic linear motor, which drives Striker VR's gun, can be scaled to different form factors for a range of firearms. (Image source: HapTech)

For now Striker VR has kept most of it's focus on gaming. Holly said several partners across the US have signed on to implement the Arena Infinity as part of theme-park like experiences such as live-action shooter games and consumers should expect to see the first Arena Infinity experiences appearing as soon as this fall. StrikerVR said it also been building partnerships with top gaming companies and motion capture professionals on the software end to create the best experiences possible for the Arena Infinity.

The company is already actively working on a newer version of the Arena Infinity as well, one that it says will be lighter and offer even more fidelity to a real-world gun. “There's just a lot of red tape [on the military side] right now,” Holly said. “It seems like the military is taking a break in investing in training and simulation, they're taking a break trying to see what happens on the consumer and civilian side.”

Still, gaming is not the ultimate goal and Holly said that if his companies have to take a detour through gaming to make it into military applications they'll only be so much the better for it. “It's always been our goal to take everything we've learned from the gaming side and bring it to the military,” Holly said.

Professor Heng Pan of Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T)works in his lab with graduate student Brandon Ludwig, a co-author of a new research study on a low-cost process to manufacture bioresorbable electronics. (Source: Sam O’Keefe/Missouri S&T)

A new technique to laser print with nanoparticles could be the key to developing electronic devices that can be implanted in the human body and then dissolve on their own without need for surgery to remove them, according to a new study from researchers at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T).

A team of engineers led by Heng Pan—assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the university—have developed a laser-printing process that processes print-ready zinc nanoparticles for fabricating tiny electronic components, they said. Xian Huang, a professor of biomedical engineering at Tianjin University in China and a former S&T faculty member, also worked on the research.

Bioresorbable electronics—also known as transient electronics—at this time typically require use traditional microchip fabrication methods. Those in turn require costly optical patterning and vacuum deposition processes.

Using laser printing to develop the devices can be far more cost effective, but there has been an issue with this process because the elements it uses, such as zinc and magnesium, are exposed to oxygen, nitrogen, and other materials that can cause adverse interactions, researchers said.

“Laser sintering of zinc nanoparticles typically has issues with oxidation if performed in an ambient environment,” Pan explained to Design News. “In fact, our work is the first demonstration of laser sintering of zinc in an ambient environment without the oxidation issue.”

Pan and his team used a laser to directly transfer and sinter nanoparticles, he said. “Basically, the laser is focused onto nanoparticle films,” he said. “At the focus spot of the laser, nanoparticles could be sintered into functional structures or transferred or printed.”

The process sinters the nanoparticles together using evaporation and condensation, thus avoiding surface oxides. The zinc conductors that result from the process demonstrated high electrical conductivity, mechanical durability, and water dissolvability, Pan said.

“The new method can direct-print patterned zinc conductors on bioresorbable polymers with conductivity close to bulk values,” he said. “And the fabricated patterns on bioresorbable substrate can be readily integrated with high performance electronics.”

Indeed, there are many benefits for patients to use bioresorbable electronics, one of the reasons they are being eyed as the future of medical devices.

“In healthcare, bioresorbable sensors have the potential for post-surgical monitoring of organ, implant, and wound health without the need for a second surgery to remove them,” Pan said.

The technique also can be applied to the development of environmental sensors, he added. Pan and the team published a paper on their work in the journal Advanced Materials.

The team plans to continue their research to print a wider range of bioresorbable materials and to use the developed printing technique to demonstrate devices with more complicated functionalities and geometries, he said.

Elizabeth Montalbano is a freelance writer who has written about technology and culture for more than 15 years.